Dan J. Brennan

Personal Commitment in Deep Friendships: Some Rambling Thoughts

Dan Brennan — Wed, 15 May 2013 06:47:33 -0500

In some circles, commitment and friendship is a contradiction in terms. There are particular beliefs out in the popular culture that friendship is a chosen relationship--a personal relationship of one's own choosing--and therefore "ought" in friendship is problematic. To talk...

The Notes: The Spiritual Beauty of Bold Boundaries

Dan Brennan — Mon, 13 May 2013 19:10:47 -0500

Here are my notes for my opening talk. Why do I use the term, sacred? Sacred cannot be limited to one faith tradition. Sacred is where the Divine, the mystical, the spiritual intersects with embodied life. . To speak of...

Moody Midday Connection and Loving Your Gay Neighbor: What Happened?

Dan Brennan — Mon, 13 May 2013 07:12:06 -0500

My friends Dale Fincher & Jonalyn Fincher were a powerful witness to what it means love our gay neighbors on a recent Moody Midday Connection broadcast (May 8th) . They were so compassionate, sensitive, and yet boldly transparent. They were...

Opening Talk: Spiritual Beauty of Bold Boundaries

Dan Brennan — Sat, 11 May 2013 06:44:51 -0500

I opened the Sacred Friendship Gathering with a talk on "The Spiritual Beauty of Bold Boundaries." After the talk my close friend, Susanne Osborne and I shared some highlights from our friendship. The first minutes include me welcoming everyone and...

Friendship, Spiritual Beauty, and the Great Horizon

Dan Brennan — Mon, 06 May 2013 07:06:55 -0500

Sacred Friendship Gathering presenter Rich Chaffins' simple but brilliant analogy about the sky made me think of Timothy Keller's vision of friendship and the "great horizon" (The Meaning of Marriage). Although Keller is a complementarian, he's another example of an...

Friendships for the World to See: Bold Boundaries

Dan Brennan — Sun, 05 May 2013 14:31:33 -0500

Here are some thoughts by Doug Webster on last week's Sacred Friendship Gathering: "There is a beauty in friendship, especially deep friendship. This beauty is a deeper beauty than what typically comes to our minds. There is a certain beauty...

"Life and Love are not Two Dimensional": The "Something More" in Friendship

Dan Brennan — Wed, 01 May 2013 05:46:17 -0500

Sacred Friendships Gathering presenter, Rich Chaffins gave such a simple but powerful analogy when he discovered the deep beauty of the "something more" in friendship. Life and love are not two dimensional. In just a short illustration of that, he...

Bold Boundaries: "What it means to be Church."

Dan Brennan — Sun, 28 Apr 2013 14:16:39 -0500

From someone who attended Bold Boundaries: "What we both appreciated even more than the content, which was terrific, was the spirit of the conversation: authentic, vulnerable, no-shit. This is what it really means to be church." Emily Maynard also tweeted...

Why Come to Bold Boundaries: Sexualization in the Churches

Dan Brennan — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 08:44:46 -0500

David E Fitch & Geoff Holsclaw, in their book, Prodigal Christianity, "In our society, there is a ubiquitous void of meaningful friendships, of relational intimacy, on any level. Much of this is caused by the oversexualization of all relationships (between...

My Brother: Friendship in the Trenches with the Suffering

Dan Brennan — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 07:38:28 -0500

As my regular blog readers know, this place is where I write as an advocate for male-female friendships. This post is going to be on something different. It's going to be about something deeply personal. Something I've never addressed in...

Bold Boundaries Schedule: "Walked Many Miles in These Kinds of Friendships"

Dan Brennan — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 06:51:11 -0500

"The speakers at Bold Boundaries come to us with more than ideas about cross-gender friendships; they have walked many miles in these kinds of friendships, have ministered together within these kinds of friendships, and they will speak openly and authentically...

Why Vicki Scheib is Coming to Bold Boundaries

Dan Brennan — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 20:12:34 -0500

Vicki Scheib attended last year’s Sacred Friendship Gathering while finishing her doctoral work at George Fox Seminary in Portland Oregon. The sincere conversations that happened at the conference helped refine her thesis and enhanced her own understanding of friendships between...

Sheila Brennan: Why I am Coming to Bold Boundaries

Dan Brennan — Tue, 02 Apr 2013 06:20:25 -0500

I (the wife of Dan Brennan who is hosting) will be attending Bold Boundaries this month (April 26-27) in Chicago. I want you to know why. I intended to post this yesterday, but Mike Morrell’s Facebook headline that Rob Bell...

"Hurt Me So Bad When My Pastor (Who Said I Was His Friend)"

Dan Brennan — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:14:02 -0500

A reader writes to me: "It hurt me so bad when my pastor (who said I was his friend) said one Sunday that he would never ride in the car with a woman alone even if they were broken down...

Forgiveness and Grace: Failing in Friendship

Dan Brennan — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 05:56:38 -0500

"Though we hate to admit it, if we stay long enough in any relationship or set of friendships we will experience failure, doubt, burnout, loneliness, transitions, a loss of self, betrayal, frustration, a sense of entitlement, grief, and weariness." Christopher...

Julie Clawson: White Men, Submission, and the Kingdom of God Pt 2

Dan Brennan — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 20:37:02 -0500

It is not giving up power to accuse those who leave a church of losing any authority or stepping outside of the kingdom of God. That is using power to manipulate and guilt people into submission. Julie Clawson This is...

Julie Clawson: White Men, Submission, and the Kingdom of God

Dan Brennan — Sun, 24 Mar 2013 06:32:42 -0500

Julie Clawson wrote on her Facebook status this past week: "Why is it always white, middle-class, highly-educated males who argue that dying to the self for the sake of commitment and accountability to a local church despite disagreement, silencing, or...